statement quoted concerning certain monuments erected in the Red Sea, in commemoration of the safe passage of the Israelites. The preacher seemed peculiarly conversant with the new Bible; for he quoted it more frequently and more fluently than the commonly received text. It is a lamentable fact, that many preachers are more conversant with Clarke, and Fuller, and Dwight, than with the writings of Moses and the Apostles.

From May's Lick we hasted to Maysville, and filled our last appointment in the specified time. In addition to our appoint. ments, at the request of the Maysville Lyceum, we gave them, the same evening, an extemporaneous address in the Methodist meeting house, on the subject of Supernatural Facts. Thus in fourteen days we passed from Louisville to Maysville, and spoke fifteen times to very large assemblies. From the residence of Judge Reid, one of my first acquaintances in the state, who, deeply impressed in favor of Christianity during the M'Calla debate in 1823, was some years afterwards immersed into the faith of Christ, in less than an hour after my address to the Lyceum we were safely aboard a steam-boat, in which we had a comfortable passage to Wellsburg, Virginia. On the evening of the same day, March 28th, we safely arrived at Bethany, and through the kind providence of our heavenly Father, to whom be everlasting gratitude! we found all things well-our immediate household enjoying health, peace, and competence.

Thus ended a tour of six months, lacking a few days, in which we passed over more than five thousand miles in our meanderings through the states of Virginia, the Carolinas, Georgia, Ala. baina, Louisiana, Mississippi, and Kentucky. We spoke almost once for every day, and were all the time in a current of human beings, incessantly in conversation. Though often in apparently imminent peril on land and sea, on mountains and rivers, by night and day, in the public stages, rail-cars, and steamboats, we suffered not the slightest injury nor accident. We found many friends and some brethren every where, and succeeded mainly in the great object of our tour, which was not that of immediate proselytism; for not more than about forty confessions were made in our presence during the journey: our great object being similar to that of our first tours in Ohio, Pennsylvania, Virginia, and Kentucky-that of dispossessing the demons of prejudice, and propitiating an impartial and candid hearing of our whole pleadings with this generation.

We learned much of the actual conditions of society in the South, as we had before by travelling in the North; and hope to make these acquisitions available to the advantage of our readers.

On a survey of all that we saw and heard on the whole subject of religion and morality-both theory and practice-we must

say, that much is wanting, very much is wanting in order to correct and scriptural views of the gospel and its institutions; and still more in order to moral and Christian excellence of character before God and man. This is truly a degenerate age, as respects Christian purity and Christian enjoyment. There is, too, every where more of a readiness to reform the creed than the life-to correct errors of opinion and theory, than errors of the heart to rectify the understanding,rather than the affections, and to exhibit sound tenets, rather than godly lives-good works are much more wanting than good notions-devotion to the Lord, more than submission to a party-personal and family religion, more than plans and benevolent operations on paper for the Asiatics and Africans.

What a singular phrenzy is a religious zeal without know. ledge. To see persons making large donations, outfits, and arrangements for missionary operations to the isles that are afar off; while their own children and servants on their plantations are as far from the kingdom of heaven as the Arabians; so far as Christian faith, or piety, or moral excellence is concerned. To what, but a species of monomaniacism, can we ascribe those mighty efforts to convert Pagans in Africa, while Africans in America are as ignorant of the way of life,as were their ancestors at home a thousand years ago! We talk about translations of the Scriptures into foreign languages for the benefit of foreign savages, while we have millions of our population that can read and understand the Hebrew Bible as well as the King's English! O, you Christian Fathers, and you Christian Masters! what will you say for yourselves when the wretched fate of your own household shall be traced to your neglect of duty; to your avarice, your pride, your devotion to public opinion, or supreme indiffer. ence to the final destinies of those whose eternal fortunes the God of all flesh has entrusted in a great measure to your care! Awaken, I pray you, to your responsibilities, and think not that your hundreds or your thousands contributed to schools and colleges, and missions, and education associations-all of which may be both lawful, expedient, and useful in their own placeswill justify your neglect of duty at home to those who have larger and stronger claims upon your liberality, or avert the vials of divine indignation hanging over the heads of those that practically deny the faith, in not providing for the intellectual and moral, as well as the physical wants of their households!

The piety of this generation, with but a few exceptions, does not fill my ideas of Christian devotion. The fear of God, revereace for his authority, consecration to his will-prayerfulness, constant prayerfulness of temper-savory and gracious conversation-attention to the wants of God's other children-liberality 27

VOL. III.-N, S.

of feeling, liberality in the way of benevolent contribution, liberality as respects those who labor for the Lord at home and abroad -care for orphans and widows, care for the ignorant and unedu. cated those sacrifices with which God is so well pleased, are comparatively greatly deficient amongst all parties. Millions are consumed upon the lusts of men for thousands that are laid up in deposite in the Bank of Heaven. But time fails. I must speak of this hereafter. "O Lord, revive thy work; in the midst of the years, in the midst of the years make known: in wrath remember mercy"!

A. C.

THE GOSPEL-No. IV.

"Moreover, brethren, I declare unto you the GOSPEL which I preached unto you, which also you have received, and wherein ye stand: by which also ye are saved, it' ye keep in memory what I preached unto you, unless ye have believed in vain. For I delivered unto you first of all that which I also received, how that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures; and that he was buried, and that he rose again the third day according to the scriptures." 1 COR. IV. 1-4

AND is it then the gospel that Christ died for our sins, was buried and rose again? Have these few simple facts constituted the hope of the ancients and the joy of the moderns; the inspiration of the prophet and the fortitude of the martyr? Are these the theme of seraphic and cherubic song, and the power of God himself to the salvation of the world? Can it be that an annunciation so brief, and apparently so simple, has already wrought such important changes in the affairs of men, and is yet to exert so predominant an influence in the accomplishment of human destiny?-that the same truth which is the solace of the solitary wanderer, is to operate upon the entire mass of the human family? So Paul affirms, and both history and prophecy confirm his declaration.

Nor need we be surprised that so great effects are to be produced by means so simple. This only proves the perfection of the instrument, and is perfectly in accordance with the divine procedure in other cases. To combine simplicity and power is regarded as a manifestation of consummate skill. No one is rewarded for 'making a machine more complicated. Every improver aims to produce the same or a greater effect by a more simple mechanism. The very simplicity, then, of the gospel, is but an additional evidence of its divine origin.

It is also in harmony with other exhibitions of the wisdom and power of God. In the economy of nature, for instance, there is nothing more common than the accomplishment of the greatest purposes by the simplest means; nor is there any thing more familiar than the ready applicability to particular and minor things of principles and powers which

are capable of exercising supreme and universal control. It is the same pervading influence, the attraction of gravitation, which brings to the ground a sere and yellow leaf from the oak, or the blazing meteor from heaven, and sustains in their orbits the immense planetary bodies, with their satellites. It is the same power, the attraction of cohesion, which moulds the dew-drop, which, poised upon a slender blade of grass, and touched by the sun's first rays, appears bright and beautiful as the diamond or pearl-'a gem of purest ray serene;' and lifts to the clouds the rocky precipice where the eagle builds her eyrie, and against whose base the waves of ocean rage in vain. It is not strange, then, that the same Divine Mechanician should in the religious and moral world endow the simplest means with power to accomplish the greatest ends, and to act with the same facility upon individuals and upon nationsupon one and upon all.

But again: it will be evident that the gospel must be of necessity something very simple, when it is recollected that it is to be preached to every creature. The great majority of the human race are ignorant and debased, slow of apprehension, and feeble in their capacity. The gospel is designed to open their blinded eyes, to turn them from darkness to light, to inform the understanding and to move the heart. That it has accomplished this purpose wherever it has been faithfully exhibited, and that the present civilization and refinement of the nations is mainly owing to its influence, is admitted by the best informed. Being then suited to the comprehension of all-the European, the Indian, the Negro, and the rude Barbarian, it cannot be any thing abstruse or remote, but must necessarily be easily perceived, understood, and felt. Could we indeed suppose for one moment that this divine and glorious gospel had transformed itself into those ponderous and complicated bodies of divinity which life will scarce afford time to read, or eternity to understand, we might well despair of our own salvation and the conversion of the world. Alas! how weak is man's power, and how foolish his wisdom, when compared with the omnipotence and omniscience of Jehovah. It is in his grasp that the simple and beautiful creations of God perish, and he would fain substitute his own awkward and complicated contrivances. It is in his impure vessel that the waters of the sparkling fountain lose their clearness and refreshing coolness, but all his art is insufficient to purify and restore them!

How different might now have been the state of the world if the gospel in its simplicity had been exhibited to mankind since the days of the Apostles! And to what a speedy termination it would bring the discords, feuds, and party jealousies of Christendom, if all would confine themselves to the joyful tidings that Christ has died for our

sins according to the scriptures, that he was buried, and that he rose the third day according to the scriptures! These are facts, not opinions ar speculations. These are easily proved, readily understood, and quickly felt. And by these also we are saved,' says our Apostle, 'if we keep them in remembrance.'

R. R.

MORALITY OF CHRISTIANS-No. XV.

THERE are many callings in society which are exceedingly inimical to, if not actually and positively subversive of, the morality of the gospel. In fact, there are some callings in which success depends chiefly, if not wholly, upon immoral action. Such, for example, as the manufacture of the stiletto, dirk, Bowie knife, and other instru ments of assassination, of private and individual murder and vengeance. Something may be said in favor of the armor of national defence; but nothing can be said in favor of those weapons made for personal and private combat and vengeance, and which are to be carried and worn in secret. The soldier-yes, the gallant soldier carries upon his person, openly and visibly, his armor, the instruments and the insigniaof his profession; but none but the assassin, the private aggressor, the coward, or some thoughtless swain, wears on his person those weapons of private and personal aggression or defence. The maker and the vender of such barbarous and savage instruments surely cannot pray for a blessing upon their labors and profession. They cannot pray for a time when men shall follow peace with all men, and holiness, without both of which no man can be saved. They cannot pray to be delivered from all evil, or to be guarded from the appearance of it, or not to be abandoned to temptation: for such petitions would be almost tantamount to praying for their daily bread not to be given them.

This is equally pertinent to the manufacturers, distillers, and retailers of ardent spirits, especially of such articles as are chiefly used for the daily consumption of that class of intemperate persons which are in all countries the most grievous ulcers on the body politic. How, need I ask, could a Christian in the present day, when the influences of these callings are made manifest to all men, lift up his eyes to heaven, and in the presence of his God and his own household, say in the words of the saints of another age, "Bless, O Lord, the work of my hands:" "the labor of our hands, O Lord, do thou establish it!" Could such a one ask for his daily bread without implying success in his calling? And is not praying for success in that calling, praying for